Hi I’m Lan, the name is not short for anything but there is a story behind it, maybe I’ll share it with you some day? I started playing tennis by accident really, I happened upon it at school when I was about 9. It didn’t take me long to become obsessed with tennis and by 11 I had given up all other sports and left home so that I could get what I needed for my tennis. I was fortunate to have a very good coach and a group of similarly passionate kids to train with and butt heads against. There was a lot of fun and a lot of dead serious hard work in those early years. I had some good success in the juniors, getting to the no1 spot in the U/16’s and U/18’s in South Africa and playing all the junior Grand Slams.
After a 2 year stint in the SA Air Force, which was mandatory back then and a major waste of time! I finally got to start living what I had been dreaming about doing for years, traveling and playing full time. I spent the next 11 years playing on the ATP Tour.
I feel privileged to have played against many of the games great players during those years and proud of fact that I managed to get a few wins over some of them even if most of those were on the doubles court. Over the years I have played against the likes of Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg, Pat Cash, Pat Rafter, Gustavo Kuerten, Goran Ivanisevic, Michael Stich, Todd Martin, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Woodforde/Woodbridge, Bob and Mike Bryan and many other great players. I have had wins over Rafter, Keurten, Invanisevic, Stich, Martin, Korda, Costa, Ljubicic and many more of the games top players.
Over those 11 years there were many great experiences, lots of traveling, lots of different countries, lots of hotels, and generally a fantastic time. When I stopped playing after Wimbledon in 2000 I had played in 23 Grand Slams and had played in almost every major event on the calendar, it is quite cool seeing the tennis on TV now and knowing that I had been there done that! Not as well as I would have liked but I had done it none the less.
I’ve often been asked what the highlights were from my playing days. There are many great memories and matches but probably the two things that come to mind most were making the doubles quarter finals at Wimbledon with Brett Steven in 1994, we were oh so close to making the quarter finals of the US Open as well that year, one that got away!
The other highlight if you can call it that, happened after I had qualified and just won my first round at the US Open, I got back to the hotel and watched the end of Agassi playing an epic match against Thomas Enquist on TV, it was a very surreal feeling knowing that there were millions of people watching the match and that I was waiting to play the winner. I lost to Enquist in 4 sets.
In 1993 I was elected by my fellow players to represent them on the ATP Player Council. It was a very nice feeling that the other guys thought enough of me to vote for me to represent them. During my time on the Player Council, I did manage to help bring about the doubles qualifying event at the US Open, I’m not sure if they still have “Dubs Qualies” but it was lucky for me that they did as in 1998 after returning from shoulder surgery I managed to play through the qualifying rounds and reach the 3rd round.
After I stopped playing on the tour in 2000 I took the job of assistant coach of the men’s team at the University of California Berkeley. I really enjoyed the 2 years that I spent at Berkeley, I enjoyed not having to travel all the time and also not having to beat very good tennis players every week to make a living. Not having played college tennis myself I did not know very much about it and I was surprised at the level, out of the 10 guys on our team 5 of them were on the Davis Cup teams of their respective countries. I enjoyed working with the guys sharing my experience, this was my first real taste of coaching, and it had a whole different set of challenges and rewards. I am a big fan of college tennis, it is absolutely fantastic, I wish I had gone that route.
In 2002 I moved to Queenstown in New Zealand, it is the most beautiful place that I have ever been to and I have been around a bit. Before I left Berkeley, I got a phone call from a pro active tennis dad in Queenstown who had 2 boys aged 10 and 11 that were very keen on their tennis, he had heard that I might be moving to the area and asked if I would coach his boys. After I got here we all sat down had a chat, set some goals and then got to work. 8 years later Ben and Riki have both played in all the junior Grand Slams and are both now on tennis scholarships at Berkeley. It’s funny how life works out sometimes. I still coach full time down here and work with a handful of very keen young kids. I love passing on the passion I have for the game and the experience I’ve gained from 32 years of tennis.
In 2003 a good friend and former top 10 player Wayne Ferreira asked if I would help him during the tournaments in Australia in January. Of course I said yes, it’s not every day that a great player asks you to help them out. Australia is very close and as I had only been away from the tour for 2 and bit years it gave me a great chance to catch up with loads of good friends. Wayne had a his best run in 3 years making the semis of Sydney and then the semis of the Aussie Open. Wayne lost to Agassi but then so did everyone in Melbourne that year, he was at his best. I like to think that I played a small part in Wayne’s success during his trip down under. During that month I also spent some time helping the doubles team of Kevin Ullyett and Wayne Black both of whom I had had some success playing with in the past. Good times!!